


A World's Justice

by SkylaDoragono



Category: Persona 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-21
Updated: 2013-09-21
Packaged: 2017-12-27 04:46:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/974504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkylaDoragono/pseuds/SkylaDoragono
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He promised to take him home; he is going to make sure he gets to stay there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A World's Justice

Adachi had entered the TV world.

When Yu received that phone call from his uncle while out with his friends enjoying the rest of their Golden Week, he could not believe it.  Apparently Adachi's good behavior while in jail had gotten him extra privileges, including extra TV time to himself.  Clearly, no one had told them what a bad idea that was, but even still, that did not make any sense.  The former detective had learned his lesson, had even said as much; on top of it, he was a coward at heart.  There was no way Adachi would have entered the television on his own unless he felt he had no other choice.

Yu was holding onto the last letter he had received from the detective before his year in Inaba had ended.  The reminder that Adachi had changed, was rethinking his life and acknowledged that his game had ended, was what drove him to going to Junes on his own.  The store was ridiculously busy, being near the end of Golden Week, and everyone was there taking advantage of sales at the last minute.  For a moment, he worried that he would not be able to get a chance to slip inside the television, but suddenly the electronics department cleared, and he jumped straight in.

The television was peaceful now that Labrys was out and the fog had disappeared… sort of?  As he glanced around, debating on where to start, he could see a trail of faint mist dancing above one of the pathways that led off the stage, and Yu felt his heart freeze in his chest.  He was fairly sure that pathway led to Yomotsu Hirasaka, and sure enough as he dared to follow the mists beckoning to him, the path gradually melted away into the familiar red and black pathways of the road to Yomi.

He felt his Fool Arcana stir in the back of his mind, a faint reminder that he would be protected always as he walked further down the path, the fog thickening around him with each step.  Yu had to pause after a moment, blinking, trying to force the fog away from his eyes like he had in that final confrontation.  It took some time before the fog receded, almost like he had scolded it, and he could not help a small smirk at the mental image as he pressed on.

It was disturbingly silent on the walkways of death, not like the last time he had walked them.  Last time there were Shadows, painfully difficult and grueling to defeat; now it was just quiet, _empty._ The emptiness reminded him of the person he had come to find, how Adachi felt he had nothing, that the world held nothing for him except endless disappointed.  He felt sorry for him, that he could not see the best parts right in front of him, that he felt like he had to abuse others and strike out against people to have any sort of feeling toward anything.  Yu wanted to believe that he could be saved, that this event would not reflect badly on him, and he would be able to recover himself in the ten to fifteen years he was sentenced.

He deserved a place in the world, after all.

Yu reached the end of the path, and he could see the final stage beyond the tori gate before him.  It was empty, but the fog was pouring out of the hole in the center of the platform as it had when he had last been there, and the silence was so consuming the mere act of breathing was difficult for his ears to process.  Hesitantly he approached, coming up to the tori gate and peering out onto the platform.  Just as the toe of his foot touched the platform, there was a shuffling sound beside him, and Yu spun around in surprise…

Only to see Adachi falling toward him.

Yu let out a startled noise, arms flinging out to grab the detective.  Still, it was awkward, and he ended up falling to his knees as he kept a tight grip on him.  He glanced down at him, seeing that Adachi was still wearing his prison jumpsuit and his eyes were squeezed shut, like he had been scared out of his mind before he fell unconscious.  Yu shook him, trying to get him to wake up and when he did not move, he fumbled around at his neck, trying to find a pulse.

"Stop."

Yu's head snapped up at the familiar voice, seeing a specter of white and grey and blazing red eyes rising from the hole in the platform.  His grip on Adachi unconsciously tightened at the sight of her, less afraid for himself and more worried for the detective.

"This doesn't look like watching us from on high."

That did not mean he would be able to keep back the sarcastic comment, though.  Her blood red eyes narrowed at him, a faint, humorless smirk gracing her lips.

"This is no matter to concern yourself with, child of man," Izanami said.  "That is mine to deal with.  You have no business here."

Yu could not help but tighten his grip on the detective.  "What are you going to do with him?"

"Is that not obvious?" she replied.  "In order to leave this world to its own devices, I must erase that which failed my experiments."

Her arm slid up, a finger outstretched toward Adachi.

"His life is mine to do with what I will.  That is why I pulled him to this world."

Yu grit his teeth, his arm coming protectively around the detective.  He was right; there was no way he would have thrown himself into the TV willingly.  His mind went back, to a year ago and the first time his hand had sunk into the television.  Something had grabbed him then, something with thin, boney fingers, and he could not help if that same hand that was outstretched toward Adachi was the same that had attempted to pull him in too.

"You have no right to claim his life," he stated firmly.  Of course, he was telling a goddess what she could and could not do; she let out an amused laugh, her other arm coming up, palms held up.

"You have no right to say what is and is not mine," Izanami sneered, lightning crackling around her hands.  "If you dare to challenge me a second time, you will not be so lucky as the last."

The energy in the air felt charged, and Yu could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he could feel the crackling in the air prickling at his skin.  Without a second thought, Yu's hand reached up, and there was a shattering of glass just as bolts of lightning shot from her hands, scorching the ground around him and…

Anything that would have struck Yu was knocked away.  A blade stood between himself and Izanami, and the owner of the blade hovered just behind him, the black bancho coat flapping loudly from the shockwaves generated by the lightning hitting the blade.  The goddess recoiled, her calm and controlled demeanor breaking at the sight of her attack being so easily blocked.  Izanagi swept away from between them, and the Persona slung it over his shoulder, yellow eyes blazing as he stared the goddess down, as if daring her to strike again.

Silence reigned between them, and Yu did not dare let out the breath that he wanted to.  He had a feeling he would be able to withstand anything the goddess threw at him; after all, he had just been fighting with other Persona users, and not amateurs either.  Even with the couple months break since his last time in the television, he was much stronger than he had been when he first confronted her.

Slowly, Izanami let her arms fall back to her sides, not saying anything, though there was nothing she needed to say.

"You have no place in our lives; _any_ of our lives," Yu began.  "The game is over, your 'experiment' is over, and we've all earned the right to live our lives.  Even Adachi-san."

Izanami's expression had gone back to neutral, almost carefully so.  "And you are comfortable with this, child?" she asked him. It almost seemed like one last bid to get him to change his mind.  "Your human justice is inadequate; it will not serve as the punishment a man such as he deserves."

"Maybe not," Yu admitted.  The fact that Adachi was only going to serve ten to fifteen years in jail was unfair, and did not seem like the kind of justice the family's of his two victims deserved.  It was the very least that could be done, when there was only the detective's confession and a vague explanation as to how the deaths took place to go off of in terms of who was guilty.

"But it's the World's justice," he continued.  "Even if it isn't fair, it's what he deserves by _human_ law.  Not _your_ will.  That's the only way he'll ever find his own way in life."

Izanami raised a delicate eyebrow, not missing the veiled arcana reference.  After a moment, she finally turned away in a swirl of white, the fog creeping up along her form.

"Careful, child… such hubris and naivety could come back to you in ways you do not wish."

She glanced behind her, and the last sight of her was a cruel little smirk before she disappeared into her fog.  The suffocating white that surrounded them receded, gathering in the hole in the platform, like a stopper coming unplugged from a drain.

It was a moment before Yu dared to breathe, and he wilted slightly, looking down at the detective still unconscious in his arms.  A moment passed, before he rested his head on top of his, letting out a shuddering breath.

"M'sorry, I should have written… I should have told you about her," he murmured faintly.  "But… I mean it.  I believe in you.  I believe you'll find your place in life."

He let out another steadying breath, before he looked up at Izanagi, wondering just how he was supposed to get out of this place carrying someone else.  As if in answer, his Persona vanished, returning to the sea of his unconscious and drawing a sour look out of Yu.


End file.
